Eternity Served Cold
by ArtisticallyMental
Summary: Inspired by the song, "Eternity Served Cold" from the "Cherubim" album. Just a little headcannon oneshot.


"You SURE he's here?"  
The room was dense with talk of him, he who had done such unspeakable evils.  
"Yes. We once shared a body, which means I can sense a part of him, even now in the afterlife. I'll always be connected to him, and that's what scares him."  
Silence fell upon the room.  
"If he's scared of you, there has to be more to it than just 'she can find me'. You're of SOME danger to him. There's no way we can wake you up, Calliope?"  
Silence fell again. Every time her name was spoken there was a glimmer of hope that she would awake, emerging victorious in the constant battle for consciousness with Caliborn. They realized that chances of this were almost nonexistent because of her death. Also, he was no longer her brother, Caliborn. He was Lord English.

Some time ago, Roxy had stumbled upon the dream bubble that Calliope was hiding inside of. This was possible only because of their close friendship. It took Roxy much longer to find it again, but she eventually did and got the others in it as well. This was more than a casual meet up. This was a chance to defeat Lord English.  
"Being a Lord of Time, we're going to need a strong time player in order to have any chance of defeating him." All eyes went to Dave. "Lucky for us, we have that." Calliope finished.  
"Say we can find where he is. What then? He's easily killed others who've tried to beat him." Jane skeptically questioned. For some reason, Calliope grinned.  
"Well, we have something they don't have. Something that nobody else has had before."  
Curious looks were exchanged. Those who had spoken to Calliope before knew her to be vague, but there were no "spoilers" now. Interest was piqued. She slowly turned her head towards Dave.  
"Not only do we have a Knight of Time," she turned her head slightly to the left to where Jade was standing, "but also a Witch of Space."  
"So?" Jade responded blatantly.  
"So, I believe if there's any chance of defeating Cali-Lord English, it's through you. Having both a Knight of Time and Witch of Space could weaken him... perhaps even to the point of my awakening."  
"But why would a space player even matter?"  
"I was one, too."

Nobody but Calliope actually knew exactly what this meant, but it had to be important. God tiers with the same element as the cherubs could produce an energy around Lord English that could, if they got lucky, weaken him and wake up Calliope.  
"Of course, it's known that glitches destroy him-"  
"Well why didn't you say that before?! We can just stay safe here and glitch him out!" Karkat interrupted in his usual shout.  
"I don't think we can cause a large enough glitch to completely kill him without hurting ourselves in the process. Is this correct?" Kanaya supposed. Besides Calliope, she grasped the situation the most successfully.  
"Yes. However, I know a small glitch that still could help out."

A wide grin spread across Calliope's face as she pulled out a lollipop from her sylladex. It was swirled green and red, and a collective groan was let out among the alpha kids.  
"Oh God, not again." Jane's eyes went wide. NEVER again.  
"Don't worry, not you guys. We need your abilities. However, those who are not Gods..." Calliope trailed off and turned her head to the remaining trolls, Karkat, Kanaya, and Terezi.  
"Shit." Karkat muttered.  
"There's no need to worry, it's a nice power-up. You basically become temporarily invincible. Glitchy, but invincible." Calliope explained. "We'll need to make use of everybody though. Karkat, I need everybody on your team who wasn't god tier."

Karkat's expression turned from regularly angry to sad. He hadn't been a good leader. They were all gone because of him. He was hesitant.  
"Well, um, you're looking at them"  
He crossed his arms defensively. Calliope smiled before she spoke.  
"No, I mean everyone."  
Karkat went back to being angry. How dare she smile at this! At his friends. His friends who were now gone.  
"They're all dead!" He shouted.  
"Doesn't matter. Trickster mode can bring them back." There was silence.  
"What?"  
"Juju is a very powerful thing."  
"So Nepeta and Fef and Tavros..."  
"And everyone else." Her smile widened along with the others as the realization hit- they could come back.

It was desolate. Buildings were crumbling and destroyed, and an eerie silence crowded the area. The air was partially clouded with dust. Hiding carefully inside abandoned buildings or behind ruins were the kids and the trolls. They'd discussed the plan over and over again, making sure they could perfectly execute it. This couldn't fail. In the distance, every so often a faint sound could be heard if you listened hard enough- it resembled scratching. It was the most terrifying sound any of them had ever heard. It meant HE was coming.  
Inside Calliope's dream bubble anxiously stood the ghosts of Tavros, Nepeta, Equius, Feferi, and even Vriska and Eridan. Each one of them was determined to defeat Lord English, purposes varying from "he's evil and must be stopped before he hurts anyone else" to "I don't like that he's more powerful than me." Vriska held the Juju they would consume at Calliope's mark. In front of them, a small screen-like device displayed the dreary scene on the planet Lord English was roaming. They kept in full contact with the others.  
Dave and Jade hid behind a tall piece of rubble closest to where the action would soon take place. Both, while reluctant to admit it, were terrified. If this failed, they'd be the first to die, and facing Lord English would be a heroic death. She nervously grabbed his hands, a habit she's had since she was young. He didn't resist it. They glanced over to John and Rose, hiding behind another piece of rubble. Rose equipped herself with her old wand, which maybe, hopefully, could incapacitate or weaken him.  
Their pulses raced. Anticipation was the worst; just waiting. Inside a crumbled building waited Karkat, Terezi, and Kanaya. They exchanged worried looks, but made sure to stay absolutely silent. In Karkat's hand lied the Juju, ready to be used at any time.

Footsteps. The sound was horrible, just step after step. Sometimes they would pause and everyone would fear that he knew they were there. Waiting. More waiting. Always waiting. The footsteps got louder and louder, and more scratching sounds were apparent. Behind the rock, Jade gripped Dave's hand tighter. He pulled her to him and whispered,  
"You can do this, Jade." She tilted her head to look at him. "You're strong, and you're fierce, and you're hella scary when you're mad. Remember all that shit he did? Summon that anger and you'll be unstoppable." He paused as the footsteps got even closer.  
They both peered over at Karkat, who was giving the signal that Lord English was approaching. "If you're in any kind of trouble, I'll be right here to save you." Dave spoke again.  
"Thanks, Dave. My knight in not-so-shining armor." She said in a muffled giggle.

For a moment everything was still. She glanced over and Karkat gave the signal. Lord English was there. She could only hear her own breathing, and for a moment was scared that she wouldn't be able to move. No, she would have to. Everything was at stake. Dave turned her around to face him, seeing the fear in her eyes. He kissed her forehead and whispered,  
"Remember, I'm right here." There was no turning back.

She ran. No thoughts, just running. If she took time to think, she would've been running the other way. It took three steps from out behind the rock before she spotted him. His eyes were pool balls, his skin was a dark forest green, and he was huge. He roared at the sight of her, revealing sharp, horrifying teeth. But, Jade kept running. It was like a nightmare; she couldn't actually wrap her head around what she was doing. The success or failure of the mission would depend on what she did right then, right there. Strange green light was emitting from her palms, her offense against the monster. She remembered everything he had done- the people he'd killed, the planets he'd destroyed or enslaved, and his plans for her team if they failed. She summoned every ounce of power a Witch of Space could have, still running, and the lights grew brighter. They grew stronger, they pulsed with an almost electric current, and they gave her hope that maybe, just maybe, they could win.

Lord English drew back his head. Jade knew what came next, that terrible beam. The ray that destroyed everything, that turns people into skeletons. She threw her hands in front of her face and shot the light at him, encasing the beam in a kind of space-lock. She lifted herself up into the air to get a better shot, moving closer and increasing her power. There was a look of confusion on the monster's face, much satisfying to Jade. What could be so powerful as to even slow him down? Her. And she loved it. The green lightning-esque power increased in strength as she closed in on him, and she almost had him done for. It couldn't be that easy… something had to go wrong, and it did.

Lord English somehow broke free of her hold long enough to swat her out of the air, kicking up dust as she hit the ground.

"Jade!" Dave yelled as he emerged from behind the rock after her. That hideous _thing_ wouldn't even get close enough to touch her.

He pulled his timetables from his sylladex quickly, grabbing them from out of the air and spinning them. Suddenly, an army of about ten alternate timeline Daves appeared around Lord English. Any more clones would have doomed Dave's own timeline. Each one pulled out two katana swords from their own strife decks and began fighting while the alpha Dave tended to Jade.

"Jade, Jade. Hey, you're fine, get up. Jade!" Dave yelled as he shook her. She wasn't unconscious, but that blow wiped her out.

One by one the alternate Daves, all belonging to doomed timelines anyways, were burned by Lord English. When it got down to the final three, Dave was really starting to fear for their lives. _He _ couldn't stop that beam. He looked up and saw the green skull-faced beast staring down at him, smirking. He roared, and Dave prepared himself for the worst, covering Jade as best he could. But nothing came.

She'd awoken and continued to block Lord English's main weapon. Neither she nor Dave spoke a word, but gave a knowing glance. Dave signaled to Karkat behind the ruined building. Now, things were going to get interesting. Back in the dream bubble, Calliope told the ghost-trolls to commence trickster mode. They hopped right in with the living trolls in the wasteland.

If anything worried Lord English, it was this. Glitches in the game were his most powerful weakness. The tricksters ran at him, each bearing their weapon of choice. The beta kids had never seen such a thing, and even had to stifle laughter. Take ten hyper, sugar-filled, colorful shouting aliens rushing at a giant green monster with a newly developed look of almost terror on his face, and the grim situation was almost forgotten. Jade used the same power that kept the death-beam in place to incapacitate Lord English as the trolls circled him. _Flawless,_ Jade thought. Everything was going perfectly…

Then everything went dark.

Dave turned around to see Jade knocked out on the ground. Lord English was smirking, now able to destroy the annoying pests surrounding him. The trickster trolls still encircled him, glitching uncontrollably. He roared, a warning. He opened his mouth, but oddly nothing came out. No beam, no destruction, no death. He was wavering in an out of existence; he was glitching.

Dave was shaking Jade again.

"God dammit Jade, not again, get your ass up!" Dave yelled.

He glanced over at Lord English, now on his knees. _Well I'll be damned, _he thought, _it's really working._ He went back to Jade, who was just waking up. Using so much power must be weakening her.

Rose and Roxy, hiding behind two separate rocks, fired their wands. Rose taught her mother/daughter the spell as they were preparing, and Roxy was eager to "become a wizard". Lord English was on the ground, dumbfounded that anything so weak could even come close to stopping him, maybe even defeating him. _How… _he thought, _how could this happen?_

Dave helped Jade up, and they began to head over to the height of the battle. Suddenly, about ten feet away from the fighting, a flash of green light appeared. It flashed like the light from Jade's hands. As it dissipated, they could see who it was. Heads turned, people gasped, and Lord English spoke, a mixture of rage and terror.

"Calliope."

"Hello, brother." Was her only response.

Dave and Jade ran closer to the chaos. Suddenly, they were both lifted into the air, surrounded by light- green for Jade, red for Dave. _What the hell?! _ Ran through their minds simultaneously. Jade was dragged toward Calliope, stuck above her, while Dave came to a stop above a now powerless Lord English. The light grew, and they could both feel power radiating from it. Both lights produced lightning-type rays that shot at Lord English.

_"Having both a Knight of Time and Witch of Space could weaken him... perhaps even to the point of my awakening."_

So, _this _ was what Calliope meant.

The rays continued to shoot, Roxy and Rose continued blasting him with their "magic", the trickster trolls continued to beat down on him, and he was getting… smaller? It almost appeared as if Lord English was once again becoming Caliborn, the brother Calliope knew. She walked closer to the scene, staring down at him.

"You've done so much evil. Won't you even just _try_ being good?" She asked looking down on him with a look of disgust, already knowing the answer. Caliborn growled and weakly responded,

"Never."

The beams of light coming from the Knight and the Witch grew stronger and brighter, shooting at him with full power.

He glitched out.

Caliborn was gone.

Lord English was gone.

Forever.

Dave and Jade fell to the ground with a thud. Calliope snapped the trolls from trickster mode, and the alpha kids (and John) emerged from their positions on the side.

"Dave! Jade!" John yelled and ran over, Rose trailing behind.

"Hold on…" she told John as she laid her finger on their wrists, checking for pulses. "They're…they're dead."

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-" John began.

"Shut up, John." Jane spoke as she walked over to them. As a Maid of Life, she could easily bring people back. She used her power on both of them, waking them up immediately.

"So, he's really dead?" Rose asked Calliope.

"He's really dead. It's all over."

Now, they could finally win this game.


End file.
